


Some Fights We Win (but Tuesdays tend to suck)

by rfarrify



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Gen, Nicole Whump, Post season finale, Who's Valdez, WynHaught brotp, season 4 speculation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-14
Updated: 2018-10-13
Packaged: 2019-08-01 17:17:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16288625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rfarrify/pseuds/rfarrify
Summary: Nicole wakes up to find herself, Jeremy, and Robin imprisoned by the mysterious Valdez.  And that's only the beginning of their problems.  Faced with trying to protect her friends and the handful of townspeople captured with them, Nicole is forced to make tough choices.





	Some Fights We Win (but Tuesdays tend to suck)

**Author's Note:**

> Wynonna Earp and all its characters do not belong to me. I am not that worthy.

Nicole woke in fits and starts.  At one point she registered the cold surface under her.   _Definitely not my bed_ .  At another, she smelled the musty aroma of dirt and mold, with a malicious, acrid undertone of something far more sinister.  Some time later, she heard a murmur in the background, indecipherable words, and perhaps her own name, floating to her from far away, muted and echoing.   _Am I underwater?_ she mused, but before she could pursue that thought further, she slid back into unconsciousness.

When she next was able to come to fully, she swore she heard someone calling her name.

_“Nicole!”_ It was no more audible than the thoughts in her own head, but clearer than the over voices around her.   _Waverly…_ She knew the voice, and wanted to respond, but felt reality beginning to slip away again. Refusing to give up, she pushed against the encroaching blackness with all her might, and was able to break free.  She sat up abruptly, then gulped as the world shifted nauseatingly for a moment before settling into place.

“Nicole! Thank God you’re awake! Are you okay? I mean of course you’re not okay, I mean you’re bleeding and you have a huge bruise and we’ve been kidnapped and there’s a bunch of people here though probably not as many as there would have been had you not evacuated the town and that was probably a really good idea which is why you’re Sheriff…”

Nicole blocked out the rest of the words as she took a shaky breath.  She was not quite ready for the auditory assault of Jeremy’s ramblings when he was anxious. _And honestly when isn’t Jeremy anxious._ Glancing around, she was surprised not to see Waverly next to her. Nicole was so sure she had heard her girlfriend calling to her.

“Jeremy!” Nicole grunted out his name, but had no effect on the flustered scientist as he continued his nervous monologue, gesticulating wildly.  

“...and we still don’t know what happened to Wynonna or really where we are or who has us…”

“JEREMY!” she shouted, and grabbed one of his flailing arms. His words stuttered to a halt as he glanced at her hand wrapped around his wrist.  Nicole followed his gaze and was surprised to see her knuckles bruised and split.

_She remembered pulling herself from a drug induced sleep, cursing Wynonna, and herself for accepting the whiskey. Then there were others in the house.  She was running through the homestead. Robin holding her gun._

The short flash of memory caused her to look into Jeremy’s panicked eyes.  “What happened?”

Whatever his response was going to be, it was interrupted by a heavy door slamming open nearby, followed by footfalls and yelling.  Two heavily armed men approached the cage where Nicole and the others were gathered. _Wait, cage?_ Nicole mused, and she began to take in her surroundings, but her attention remained focused on the third man who entered.  He was being dragged by the other two, struggling madly between them. It was apparent that Nicole had been hearing his yells coming towards them.  The two armed men, _Guards?_ ignored the man’s protests as they unlocked the cage and shoved him bodily through the opening, quickly latching the door behind him.

Nicole lurched forward to help up the man laying sprawled across the floor, and quickly recognized him as a Purgatory local - a bum named Ronan who she’d tossed in the drunk tank on more than one occasion.  As he rose and grunted something that she had to assume was thanks, Nicole took a moment to look at the other faces in the cell. In addition to herself, Jeremy, and Robin, a half dozen people huddled away from the door, looking terrified.  She recognized a few from around town: Mrs. Baker who taught piano to the local kids and whose cat had a tendency of running away, only to reappear as soon as the she called the sheriff’s office for help; the bag boy from the corner grocer; a young couple whose faces Nicole recognized but whose names she didn’t know; Ronan; and Chrissy Nedley.  Nicole started at the sight of Chrissy, particularly without her father. She would have expected him to have evacuated his daughter as soon as the orders were issued, or at least have stuck close to her side until the danger had passed. 

Having taken stock of the other prisoners, none of whom appeared injured beside herself, Nicole glanced around at the room in which they were held.  Cinder block walls yielded little information about their location. There were no windows, and though moisture and mold trickled down the walls, it was impossible to tell if it was due to being underground or just in a shitty building.  A single, bare bulb hung above the cage, flickering occasionally, and doing a poor job of illuminating the space. Water dripped in the distance, and the occasion murmur of voices could be heard, but nothing gave any indication as to where they were or why they were there.  The cage itself was large enough for the prisoners not to be terribly crowded. She paced a slow lap around the space, wiggling occasional bars, hoping to find one where the weld would be weak enough to give, but despite the aroma that suggested the building was old and decrepit, the cage held strong.  Returning to the door, she shook it roughly, but the lock didn’t budge. She peered into the gloom beyond the cage and saw nothing but stone walls that turned sharply down a corridor beyond her view.

Huffing in frustration, Nicole turned to Jeremy.  “What happened?” she repeated her earlier question.

“They came to the homestead and grabbed us.” Jeremy replied. He scuffed his toe against the floor and look ashamed.  “You fought them, but they held a gun to my head and you had to give up. Then they knocked you out and brought us here.  I’m so sorry. Maybe if I had put up a better fight we could have gotten away.”

Nicole put a hand on Jeremy’s arm.  “It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault. If you had fought back too, we might’ve all gotten killed then and there.”  She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to remember the fight at the homestead.

 

* * *

 

_Nicole slowly pulled herself back to consciousness, finding herself sprawled on the kitchen floor.  Her mouth tasted like whiskey and something bitter, and her head was pounding._

_“Damn you, Wynonna, and your drugged whiskey and dammit, Haught, for trusting her,” she muttered as she pushed herself to a seated position._

_Looking around, she saw Jeremy and Robin still slumped on the ground, but there was no sign of either of the Earp sisters._

_“So they drugged us and then went to end this fight without any backup.  Dammit! I am going to help them get Peacemaker back and end Bulshar and then I going to yell at them so much.  And I’m talking to myself. Great.”_

_Nicole pushed herself to her feet, one hand braced on chair to support herself until the room stopped spinning and the other clutching her aching skull.  A moan emanated from one of the boys as the effects of the drugs began to wear off from them as well. As she stumbled over to check on them, she saw Robin’s brow furrow and Jeremy’s eyes flickered open._

_“Ughhhh.  What happened?” Jeremy pushed himself onto his side and glanced to ensure the wellness of his boyfriend._  

_“Wynonna drugged us.  She didn’t want us to help, I guess.  And I guess Waves was in on that. There’s going to be hell to pay when they get back,” Nicole grumbled.  At that moment, the screen door screeched open, “Which apparently is now. WYNONNA EARP, I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL ARREST YOUR ASS FOR THIS STUNT!”_

_There was no response._

_“Waves? You there?” Nicole shared a concerned glance with Jeremy, reaching down to help him to his feet.  She knew someone had entered the house as she could hear the floorboards creaking under their weight, but the lack of response rattled her.  Signaling Jeremy and Robin to stay quiet, she unholstered her gun and peered around the corner toward the front door. There she saw two men, dressed in black and heavily armed.  Unfortunately, one of them saw her as well, and fired off a quick volley of shots in her direction. Nicole ducked behind the wall, but managed to overhear one of the men scold the other._

_“Careful with your shots! Valdez wants everyone alive.”_

_Nicole turned and ushered Robin and Jeremy towards the back door, hoping to escape that way, but, through the kitchen window, caught a glimpse of at least two more men approaching that way._

_“Shit!” Latching the back door, and bracing it with a chair, she looked toward the two boys.  “We’re going to have to fight our way out.” Nicole had come to consider Jeremy a little brother, and was supportive of his budding relationship with Robin.  She wasn’t keen on the idea of either of them getting hurt, and she knew neither of them were adept fighters. Escape was going to be rough. She moved back to the doorway towards the front of the homestead, and fired a couple shots to keep the men that direction from approaching too quickly._

_“Jeremy, Robin, do either of you have your phone on you?” They shook their heads in the negative.  “Damn. Mine’s upstairs, and I don’t like the chances of getting up there and then out. I need you to figure out a way to leave a note for Wynonna and Waverly.  Give them the name Valdez so Waves can start researching until we all meet up.”_

_Jeremy nodded and began shuffling through the kitchen drawers looking for a pen.  Nicole handed her weapon to Robin so she didn’t leave them unarmed as she attempted to deal with the intruders.  She peered around the corner, and when she didn’t see either of the men, she crept out from her cover towards the front door.  As she neared the next corner, she paused and crouched. Half a breath passed before a hand holding a gun rounded the corner above her head.  Nicole popped up, grabbing the wrist, and yanking it down. Her opponent was taken off guard and lost his balance, stumbling out from his cover, straight into Nicole’s upraised knee.  He lost his gun, she let him sit down as he gasped for air._

_The second man, alerted to Nicole’s presence by the sudden departure of his companion, was prepared for her.  She turned to confront him, her movement causing an incoming punch to glance off her left shoulder. Nicole stumbled back a couple steps, shaking out her arm.  She was glad the blow had missed its intended target - probably her head - as even the glancing shot was brutally painful._

_Nicole and the man took a moment to size each other up.  He was large, but otherwise unremarkable. A malicious glint in his eyes made her wonder if he was entirely sane.  Her study of her opponent was momentarily halted by a thumping coming from the direction of the kitchen, which she guessed meant the other men were attempting to break down the door.  On top of the thundering of the wood being shaken in its frame, she heard the scrambling of Jeremy attempting to leave a note for the Earps._

_The man raised his gun and pointed it at Nicole.  She cursed not having her spare weapon, then prayed that orders from the unknown “Valdez” were strong enough to keep her alive through her own stupidity._

_And then she charged straight at the man holding a gun on her.  Roaring like a bull, she tackled him around the waist. It was akin to charging a brick wall, and she felt her already bruised shoulder scream in pain, but her momentum was enough to send them both crashing to the floor just inside the front door.  The gun went skidding across the wood, well out of her reach. Her opponent was momentarily stunned, giving her the time to push herself up, raise a fist, and deliver a couple resounding punches to his face, bloodying his nose and splitting his lip._

_Suddenly, she was ripped from her place on top of the downed man.  The other intruder had regained his breath and was lifting her by an arm locked around her neck.  Nicole kicked back and scratched at his arm, desperate to fill her own lungs. As her vision grayed and ears roared, she heard a crashing, and dimly realized that the back door had failed, allowing the other attackers access.  She heard Jeremy yelling, but couldn’t make out his words for the sound of blood rushing in her ears._

_As the seconds ticked on perilously, each feeling like an hour to her burning lungs, her movements became jerkier and less coordinated.  Eventually, Nicole stopped fighting. Her oxygen was depleted, and she’d used what energy she could muster._ I’m so sorry, Waves...

_Suddenly she felt the arm around her neck loosen and she crashed to the ground, heaving for air.  Coughing violently, she looked up to see two more men enter the room, escorting Jeremy and Robin. Luckily, the boys seemed unharmed.  She hauled herself to her feet and staggered towards them, but the arm immediately returned to around her neck, halting her. The man didn’t put any pressure on her abused throat, but the threat was apparent.  One of the newcomers raised a gun and wiggled it menacingly at Jeremy’s head. Nicole froze. As willing as she was to put her own body and life on the line to protect others, and was fairly sure these men wouldn’t kill any of them, she wasn’t willing to risk Jeremy’s life on that hunch._

_The man whose nose she’d bloodied stepped into her line of sight._

_“That’s enough from you, bitch.” He muttered, and spat a glob of bloody saliva onto her shirt front._

_Nicole was preparing a snarky come back when she noticed that he must have retrieved his gun.  Reversing his grip on it, he raised it high, and brought the butt across her face._

 

* * *

 

Nicole raised her hand and tenderly felt her brow.  Her forehead was tacky with partially dried blood and she could feel where the skin had been split by the gun.  Judging by Jeremy’s frequent, concerned glances to the area, she could only imagine that it probably looked pretty nasty.

“Okay, other than the name Valdez, what do we know?” She looked to Jeremy and Robin to fill in the gaps that she had missed when unconscious.

“Not much, honestly.” Robin was the first to respond.  “After they took you out, they marched us out to a van and made us get in.  Then they tossed you in with us and drove us here. There weren’t any windows in the back, so we don’t know where we are.  We’ve seen probably half a dozen or more guards.”

“Were you able to leave a note for the Earps?”

“Yup!” Jeremy answered this time.  “Though I couldn’t find a pen because you know their kitchen has not a lot of normal junk in it and I didn’t want to go elsewhere to look so I gave up and grabbed a knife and carved it into the wall so they should definitely be able to see that.”

Nicole gave him half smile and nodded her approval. “Good thinking, Jer.”

Just then, the door slammed open again, followed by the echoing of multiple sets of footsteps, and Nicole was certain that their problems were about to get worse from there.

**Author's Note:**

> Well here goes nothing! The first chapter of my first fic. I hope to do the characters and the fandom justice. Constructive criticism is always welcome, but be kind.


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